Matt Stutzman races a Pro Mod Camaro in NHRA drag events. This year, a big goal of his has been to hit 200 mph, and last week, he made that happen at Brainerd Motorsports Park’s NHRA Top Sportsman race. He’s hardly the first human to hit that speed on a drag strip, but he might be the first to do it with no arms.
Stutzman is known as the “Armless Archer” for his impressive skills with a bow and arrow. Despite being born without arms, he competes in archery at the highest level. In Archery. It’s tough to even imagine how challenging this world would be to exist in if you didn’t have arms, but you were to ask me, “What’s the hardest thing you could imagine doing without arms?” I think shooting a bow would be way up there. Driving a race car would, too.
Clearly, Stutzman is a resilient and creative individual. It’s no surprise that he does motivational speaking, and perhaps some of you are already familiar with his accomplishments. I only just learned about him this weekend after hearing about his success at Brainerd.
Stutzman’s been posting regular updates on a YouTube series called Quest For 200 hosted by sponsor PennGrade 1 Motor Oil, which documents his journey dialing in his car and driving to get faster. On Friday, DragCoverage confirmed that Stutzman not only crossed the 200 mph threshold—he hit 214.69. I guess that means he’ll be chasing 300 soon!
DragCoverage had previously posted an interview with Stutzman where he said an ultimate dream was “to know what 300 mph feels like.” Hear hear.
That interview included another quote that made me like this guy a lot:
“I pride myself on not just racing, but building,” Matt says. “Pretty much every nut and bolt on this car, I’ve touched—put my foot on,” he adds with a grin. “Foot-pound torque specs.”
He cites racing as a first love. On his website, he writes: “My dad encouraged me to drive, tossing me the keys to our farm truck without hesitation and trusting that I would ‘figure it out.’”
His ’68 Camaro race car with a supercharger the size of a drug dealer’s duffle bag is a far cry from an old farm truck, but it looks like he sure as heck has figured out how to drive that, too. This clip gives you a sense of how he gets his car down the track safely:
And here’s the clip of his 200-mph-besting pass at Brainerd.
Got a tip? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com.
www.thedrive.com
#Drag #Racer #Matt #Stutzman #Hit #MPH #Driving #Arms
